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Tuesday, 19 November 2013

One of the distinctions of the upper classes in ages where there was a semblance of a shared morality was the ideal of noblesse oblige. This phrase indicated that those who were wealthy and in power had a responsibility to the lower classes in raising the standards of living and in also taking leadership positions, which entailed sacrifice.

This ideal goes back to classical times, when the sons of nobility were expected to fight in the military exploits of Greece or Rome. Indeed, Ulysses was a king, as were most of the characters who took part in the Trojan Wars. In fact, it was the duty of the lords to fight with their colleagues. Even though this ideal changed over the centuries to include a more voluntary giving of services, the ideal remained until recently.

What has changed in the upper classes, who filled the rosters of the civil services and upper echelons of the military of many countries, is the lack of training in the Ten Commandments and the idea of natural law philosophy.

If law is merely what a government decides and not an ideal which shapes the lives of all men for all time, and if law is no longer based on the morals placed in men and women by God, Who made them in His image and likeness, then those in power do not feel the need to support a common morality. One only needs to work for one's self, and not for the common good.

The ideal of the common good must be based on a common natural law philosophy, otherwise, there is no "common". Without a shared vision of who men and women are and Who God is, there can be no obligation of nobility. Obligation means a duty which is perceived by a person who has a vision for both the City of God and the City of Man.

Without a transcendent vision, based on the Judeo-Christian Tradition, people fall into man-made ideologies. An ideology does not demand nobility only conformity.

What we are witnessing is a huge split in the basic approach to morality and civic duty. Those who share a common vision based on the Gospel of Christ will come more and more into conflict with those who work from completely subjective criteria.

Noblesse oblige, which was the sharing of resources of those who had with those who had not, has disappeared with the Christian culture.

Many readers are in denial about teaching their children that they, as well as you, are part of the Church Militant. Too many parents are still in a mode of denying that their children will not face great tribulation as Catholics. Too many parents are letting their children live in a false security, the City of Man, and not addressing the real reality of the building of the City of God.

Children must become saints early, as early as possible. To wait to discuss the long history of the persecution of the Church, and to wait to discuss the lives of the martyrs both betray a false protective attitude which is not of God.

It is our duty, Parents, to pass on the Faith to our children. It is our duty to form our children in the virtues from baptism. It is our duty to form saints, nor merely "ordinary" children.

If we are not preparing our children for persecution by teaching them all the truths of the Catholic Church, by not teaching them to pray daily, by not leading them to a personal relationship with Christ, God will judge us severely at our particular judgement.

Many of you know my personal witness concerning raising my child in the Faith. I add that story found in the first letter at the end of this second one.

I am shocked in my return to the States at how many Catholic parents are not teaching their children about the reality of what it means to be a Catholic. To be a Catholic is to be counter-cultural, and children must learn this as soon as possible. They must learn that they will have to make decisions contrary to those of their peers, to those of adults, to those of the government.

If you are over-protecting your children by not explaining the times, you are not allowing them to grow in grace. If you are compromising about the truth in your life and allowing your children to compromise, both you and your children will not be able to withstand the winds of hatred which will come against all of us as Catholics.

God will hold you responsible for the souls of your children.

Proverbs 22:6

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

Train children in the right way,and when old, they will not stray.

Supertradmum

Thursday, 17 October 2013

A Letter to Parents

The time has come when you must take over the entire religious education of your children. This education includes faith and virtue formation. One cannot allow the schools, colleges, and universities now mostly run by Modernist Heretics to form your children. You have no choice but to find orthodox, Catholic schools, or to home school.

The souls of your children are your responsibility until they are adults and on their own. Your children owe you obedience while they are under your roof, including attending Church and living the Catholic lifestyles. If you allow them to live outside the Church while they are under your roof, you have abdicated your role as a father or mother.

Catholic Parents, if you do not take the responsibility of passing on the Faith to your children, the Church may die in your area. Catholic leadership has never been more necessary. And, most importantly, your children must, like you, become perfect, even as Our Heavenly Father is perfect.

The personal salvation of each one of us is in our own hands. Think like a Catholic, pray like a Catholic, and live daily life in the counter-culture which is true Catholicism.

God gave us His Son, Who established the Church on earth to help us in our salvation. Do not waste this great grace.

God bless you, fellow parents. Be clear and be strong. If you allow your children to conform to the world, God will judge you accordingly at the end of your life. To be a parent is a huge responsibility, not only in providing physical needs, but spiritual needs.

As I heard from God so clearly when my son was only 9 hours old, "When you die, I shall ask you one question. Did you pass your Faith on to your son?"

SRC Funding Update

The NSF withdrew funding for the University of Wisconsin Synchrotron Radiation Center in 2011. This decision was made in spite of a history of outstanding evaluations. Unusually, the SRC community of scientists was not given the opportunity to openly discuss the closure of the facility with a peer review committee. In fact, there has never been a peer review committee recommendation to end NSF support, and the only peer review committee statement on closure (December 2008, as an aside in a report on a separate R&D proposal) was that "closing the University of Wisconsin accelerator complexes would be a terrible mistake."

With the NSF ending its stewardship of the SRC, the University of Wisconsin has stepped in with funding through the end of 2013. In January of 2012, user fees were put into place to supplement the University contributions. The superconducting RF electron gun, as a vital component of a next generation light source based on free electron lasers, is moving forward vigorously with first beam tests, and a renewal proposal for this program has been submitted to the Department of Energy. The idea of a user consortium and/or participating research teams to fund continued operations of Aladdin is being actively pursued. Interested parties should contact SRC User Gary Findley, findley@ulm.edu, or User Advisory Committee chair Tomasz Durakiewicz,tomasz@lanl.gov.

Two women I know have experienced the same answer to prayer and they have shared this with me. I share these events with you.
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The first woman, who has a brother who is an alcoholic, promised God that she would never drink alcohol again, either wine or beer or spirits, if God gave a special grace to her brother to give up excessive drinking.

The brother has just given up drinking.

The second woman prayed and felt that God was asking for a penance for her to do for her brother who is an alcoholic. She gave up beer for the rest of her life. An month after her promise, her alcoholic brother gave up drinking, cold turkey.

Many good Catholics do not understand the cardinal virtues in daily life. Many can see how these operate in extreme circumstances, such as in martyrdom or the life of holiness. To understand how these virtues operate in the ...

... trusting Him and living in the Love Who is God. Notice how that movement involves faith, hope and love, the cardinal virtues used and liberated in the Dark Night of the Soul, a movement seen in this famous psalm of David.

John of the Cross writes here that the Four Cardinal virtues come into play at this time of the Dark Night. Again, St. David is his example. We receive all the virtues in Baptism and these are strengthened in Confirmation.

In my examination of Aquinas on the cardinal or deadly sins and the cardinal virtues, I shall use other sources as well. Today, I am using an allegory, one of the earliest in existence in the Christian literary tradition.

The life of the virtues bring us to eternal life and help the Church to grow through evangelization. If we are ... Do not despair. as we have the life of the sacraments, which gives us and feed the theological and cardinal virtues.

What causes one to mortify one's self are the moral virtues, which are thereby enhanced. The moral virtues are the Four Cardinal Virtues of Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude. Here is the CCC on these virtues:.

I was invited to give a series of talks on the virtue formation of children in the family in an EU country by a diocesan priest in charge of marriage and family spirituality, and I had to say no. I would have to apply for a religious ...

He embraces his role in the world as a protector, being full of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as counsel, knowledge, wisdom,piety and the four cardinal or moral virtues, fortitude, temperance, prudence and justice.

That said, in explaining manners to my boys, I've had a somewhat different take than you, and even, it seems, Bl Cardinal Newman, although at heart we're saying the same thing. It occurred to me long ago, that good manners ...

I cannot do justice, to make a pun, on Ambrose' excellent work on the four cardinal virtues. A tiny bit on his discussion of justice will wrap up his part in this perfection series. The next person to be considered will be St. Jerome.

Please realize that modesty is a minor virtue connected to humility. As one modest, good woman told me a few days ago, part of modesty is not to attract attention to one's self. That seeking of attraction is connected to the sins ...

We actually discussed the heart in Jewish tradition and the heart in the Christian tradition in order to understand love and the other virtues, as well as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The heart has been the symbol of love for centuries. Literary .... We have many saints who use the term heart in their writings-Blessed John Cardinal Henry Newman is one of the most famous, as is the Great St. Augustine. I shall return to them in another post. But, the heart in their writings is one ...

Catholics receive the theological virtues directly from God. We all have human virtues, but the theological virtues pave the way to heaven, allowing one to live in and with the Holy Trinity. The theological virtues, as most know, ...

I do not have my book which I wrote on character building and the formation of the life of virtues in the child, but I shall do my best from memory. I have not looked at those notes since 2008, when I organized a little home ...

I am astounded how many Catholics do not understand that there is no life of the virtues without purgation. The habit of the virtues, painstakingly worked on for years, now becomes a great flowering of gifts. St. John writes, “Let ...

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman gives us a clear view of the mind of modern man. He not only knew his history, and the history of ideas, but also how thinking changes a person's view of virtue. Here is a quotation from ...

I cannot do justice, to make a pun, on Ambrose' excellent work on the four cardinal virtues. A tiny bit on his discussion of justice will wrap up his part in this perfection series. The next person to be considered will be St. Jerome.

We actually discussed the heart in Jewish tradition and the heart in the Christian tradition in order to understand love and the other virtues, as well as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The heart has been the symbol of love for centuries. Literary .... We have many saints who use the term heart in their writings-Blessed John Cardinal Henry Newman is one of the most famous, as is the Great St. Augustine. I shall return to them in another post. But, the heart in their writings is one ...

Catholics receive the theological virtues directly from God. We all have human virtues, but the theological virtues pave the way to heaven, allowing one to live in and with the Holy Trinity. The theological virtues, as most know, ...

I do not have my book which I wrote on character building and the formation of the life of virtues in the child, but I shall do my best from memory. I have not looked at those notes since 2008, when I organized a little home ...

No purgation, no purification, no road to perfection. Repentance and orthodoxy first. Then the life of virtues can kick in. Canisius looks carefully at the Cardinal Virtues as great helps in maintaining the journey to perfection.

One can and must still practice the moral and cardinal virtues at this time, but these, also, are not perfectly experienced in the soul until the Illumination State, when all these virtues, gifts and fruits come into being in real power.

Thankfully, we Christians have the virtues of Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude, the Four Cardinal Virtues, to help us out in making decisions.I thank the wiki writer for this quotation from St. Augustine found here.

We actually discussed the heart in Jewish tradition and the heart in the Christian tradition in order to understand love and the other virtues, as well as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The heart has been the symbol of love for centuries. Literary .... We have many saints who use the term heart in their writings-Blessed John Cardinal Henry Newman is one of the most famous, as is the Great St. Augustine. I shall return to them in another post. But, the heart in their writings is one ...

That religion, Catholic, Anglican, and Calvinist loyalties led to warfare, demonstrates the deeply held beliefs of those involved.

That families were ripped apart by religion is also a fact. To this day, there are Catholic and Protestant branches of the same family existing in England, Scotland, Ireland and America. I have met people of Catholic branches in England, who have long-lost cousins of the same name in certain states in America, and these American families came over as Protestants.

The hatred and persecution by the Anglicans and Calvinists of the Catholics form the stuff of history, the stories of the Tyburn Martyrs, the heroic tales of St. Thomas More, St. John Fisher, St. Oliver Plunkett, and so on. The age of the martyrs turned into the age of civil war.

The fact that some people changed sides reveals the sad stories of betrayal and treachery.

But, there was and still is, a third category of people, who were the new men and women of the 16th and 17th centuries. These were the people who left religion entirely, became cynics, and merely worked for their own status, careers, comfort. These men and women were the moderns, those self-centred ones whose only principle was me, me, me.

These opportunists spawned further generations of non-believers, who outwardly conformed, but whose souls were impervious to the interior spiritual life.

In the days to come of persecution and testing, we shall see Catholics betraying Catholics, Catholics becoming cynics, and seizing opportunities for advancement, building their little kingdoms on the backs of those whom they betray.

Do not kid yourselves, dear Catholic readers, Christ has prepared us for this.

And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. Matthew 10:36 DRIn the coming days, which side will you be on--the real Catholics, the schismatic Catholics, or the cynics? Will you be Cavaliers, Roundheads, or opportunists?

I may start a mini-series on suffering, but just flip through the Dark Night posts for now.

However, I shall say this today. If Catholics are not wearing the stripes of Christ in His Passion on their own bodies, they are not following His Gospel.

Remember when I wrote, several times, that one of the results of the Dark Night is to strip one of the ego?
The ego keeps one from true holiness by projecting a false image of one's self onto the world. This false image may include the pursuit of success and status. It may also include false missions, false ministries, not of God but of one's own self.

If a Catholic is truly following Christ today, in 2013, he should be experiencing the blows of the Passion. Many years ago, a good nun who suffered a great injustice for speaking the truth about someone evil in a school situation, but ended up being asked to leave herself, told me that she wore the stripes of Christ, her Bridegroom on her soul.

I shall never forget this statement. As a nun who was a bride of Christ, she knew she was being invited to suffer in His Passion.

She was wearing His stripes of injustice, false accusation, betrayal by those closest to her, loss of income, status, and the living a life of gross marginalization.

Such is the role of the real Catholic. Ask yourself this question today. How am I joining in the suffering of Our Lord Jesus Christ? If the answer is either, I am not or I do not know, please go back to prayer.

Two priests told me to pray to Bishop Portillo. Also, I saw a card for his ordination in a friend of mine's breviary. I ask that you join me in private prayer for my intentions and for God's perfect will in my life and yours, through the intercession of Bishop Alvaro del Portillo.

If my prayers are answered, you all will be some of the first to know, of course.

Prayer for Bishop Alvaro del Portillo's intercession

Prayer for private devotion.

O God, merciful Father, you granted your servant Álvaro, Bishop, the grace of being an exemplary pastor in the service of the Church, and a most faithful son and successor of Saint Josemaría, the founder of Opus Dei. Grant that I too may respond faithfully to the demands of the Christian vocation, turning all the circumstances and events of my life into opportunities to love you and serve the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Deign to glorify your servant Álvaro, and through his intercession grant me the favor I request ... (here make your petition). Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be to the Father.

In conformity with the decrees of Pope Urban VIII, we declare that there is no intention of anticipating in any way the judgment of the Church, and that this prayer is not intended for public use.

from the Baltimore Catechism No. 1

3. Q. What is man?A. Man is a creature composed of body and soul, and made to the image and likeness of God.

A young friend of mine in Europe told me months ago, that the Europeans were more materialistic, that is, not believing in the afterlife, but the Americans were more consumerist.

Consumerism is the great sign of the sin of idolatry in America. The richness of this country has deadened the souls of so many people. No longer do many think of their immortal souls, which are being brought either to holiness and life in heaven, or to perdition.

6. Q. Why did God make you?A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.Notice, there is nothing about happiness on this earth. And, everything about happiness in the next.9. Q. What must we do to save our souls?A. To save our souls, we must worship God by faith, hope, and charity; that is, we must believe in Him, hope in Him, and love Him with all our heart.Look carefully at this list-first of all, true worship, which in my mind is the Tridentine Mass; second, the freeing up of the virtues through the purification of the Dark Night, which allows our hearts to be made pure.To be continued...

Leon Bloy

Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma

The Church Must Not Be Defensive

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Too many Church leaders do not think, or do not think as Catholics

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GUILD PRAYER

God our Father, source of life and freedom, through Your Holy Spirit you gave the Carmelite, Titus Brandsma the courage to affirm human dignity even in the midst of suffering and degrading persecution.

Grant us that same spirit so that, in refusing all compromise with error we may always and everywhere give coherent witness to Your abiding presence among us.